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Banned Books Week: Read them; enter a "Brave New World."

Updated:
10/03/2012 10:19:14 AM EDT

We are in the midst of American Library Associa´
tion's 30th national Banned Books Week, and
readers of all ages should check out what books
the self-appointment arbiters of American morality
have decided this past year and through the decades
are not fit to be read.
Books end up on banned lists for a variety of rea´
sons, but they often have one key thing in common -
they are well worth reading.
On the list are familiar stand bys
like Harper Lee's 1960 novel "To Kill
A Mockingbird," which has long
made some people uncomfortable
with its portrayal of American
racism and ignorance. It is a must-
read, and the 1962 film of the same
name starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, a coura´
geous attorney in the Depression-era South, is a must-
see classic.
Aldous Huxley's 1932 masterpiece "Brave New
World" has been banned off and on for being anti-reli´
gious and anti-family, among other complaints, but it is
a cautionary tale about the perils of conformity and
group-think that resonates today.
Literature for young readers is disproportionately
banned by those who think they know what is best for
the children of others.
We have our own local story to tell in that regard,
with Annville-Cleona School District pulling Amy Tim´
berlake's "The Dirty Cowboy" from library shelves
after a parent's complaint.
We, and the community, didn't agree. We still don't.
Age- appropriateness of reading material is one thing;
banning things because they cause discomfort, because
they raise questions or offer challenges to whatever
passes for "the norm" is something entirely different.

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J.K. Rowling's hugely popular coming-of-age "Harry
Potter" books have been banned in some communities
because they supposedly encourage the practice of
witchcraft.
On this year's list, for another example, is Suzanne
Collins' "The Hunger Games" trilogy, and while the
teen romance may be the hook to draw young readers
in, the value lies in the withering portrayal of a totalita´
rian government that brutally suppresses dissent, dis´
torts the truth with political slogans and pacifies the
masses through a complicit media that turns savagery
into entertainment.
The first book from 2008, which is futuristic but con´
temporary in its themes, is in the tradition of "Brave
New World" and George Orwell's "1984," and like "To
Kill A Mockingbird" it generated a fine film to be fol´
lowed by two sequels.
"The Hunger Games" belongs on a must-read list not
a banned list. In fact, however, they amount to the same
list.
Bannedbooksweek.org is a great online resource for
information about censorship in the United States. In´
cluded is a link to a list of books that were banned in
one place or another that were key in shaping the way
America developed.
Highlights from the list:
Õ "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," which
was banned in 1885 in Concord, Mass., and called
"trash and suitable only for the slums."
Õ "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," a history told
not by the victors but the losers in the western expan´
sion of America and the costs to native populations. It
was banned by a Wisconsin school district in 1974 with
the idea that "If there's a possibility that something
might be controversial, then why not eliminate it."
Õ "The Catcher in the Rye," routinely banned for
being "blasphemous," "negative" and/or obscene. Ironi´
cally, J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield maintained that
"people never notice anything."
We notice when books, when ideas, when thoughts
are themselves considered dangerous, rather than
being countered by other books, other ideas and other
thoughts, which should be the rational response.
We join in marking Banned Books Week. Read all
about it; then pick something from a banned list and
read it, too.

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